My spring racing season finished up with the Soldier Field 10 Mile a few weeks ago. I have one race on my calendar in late July and then nothing again until September. So I’m no longer training, and now when I go out for a run, I’m just running. It’s a subtle difference but an important one.
When I’m training, my runs have a purpose: the long run to build up endurance, the weekday easy run to recover and log mileage, and the speed work to (hopefully) get faster. But without a race on the near-term horizon, my runs are just to run. There’s no “agenda” to the run, and I can just go by how I feel – some days I’ll go long, some days fast, some days just out for 30 minutes to stretch the legs. There’s no success or failure to any of these runs as there is no goal.
I believe in training and having a plan and seeing every workout as a chance to improve race performance. But training can be grueling. There’s an element of stress that is added when having a purpose or goal for each run. And that stress is as much mental as it is physical, and I believe that long-term mental stress can be detrimental, making it that much more difficult to get into the get into the mind-set that’s required for a successful run or race.
So for now, I’m enjoying the break from training. I’m still running, and still and enjoying it, but I’m also re-charging my mental batteries so I’ll be ready to train for the fall race season.
Born To Run
There are few “sure things” in running. Marathon or spirit? Treadmill or trail? With music or without? All great, debatable questions. However, I want to recommend one “sure thing” I am certain every runner will enjoy: the book “Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen ” by Christopher McDougall.
The book follows the author to the remote Copper Canyon of Mexico in search of the famed endurance runners of the Tarahumara Indian tribe. It’s an epic adventure as an eclectic group of distance runners make the journey to find the Tarahumaras and compete in a grueling endurance race across unforgiving Mexican terrain. In addition, McDougall takes a step back and looks at the history of human running visiting everyone from anthropologists to bio-mechanic specialists to learn how we were born to run.
The book has become popular with proponents of barefoot running for its focus on getting back to the basics of running, but thankfully avoids a strong dogmatic tone. McDougall simply presents the case that humans have been running (and running well) for thousands of years before the first running shoe arrived on the scene. And maybe in this time when 70% of all runners are afflicted by some running-related injury, taking a long hard look at how we run might not be a bad idea.
This is one of my favorite books of all time.
McDougall is an excellent storyteller and his material here is so rich with remarkable characters and exotic locations it is hard at times to believe this isn’t a work of fiction. “Born to Run” is simply an immensely enjoyable read, regardless if you ever laced up a pair of running shoes or not. But if you spend any time running, I guarantee that you will thoroughly enjoy “Born to Run.” Pick up a copy this summer and enjoy it poolside after logging your long run.
Cancelled Races or Why do I run?
Why do I run?
As I mentioned in my last post, Sunday’s Green Bay Marathon was cancelled 2 hours and 35 minutes into the race due to unseasonably hot and humid conditions. I finished the half marathon before the race was called and didn’t in fact learn about the cancellation until a few hours later. But the news didn’t come as a surprise. Along the course I saw a handful of people receiving medical attention and a number of people in the medical tent after the race. With people struggling that early in the race, it was a foregone conclusion that things would get worse as the miles, hours, and temperatures increased.
There has been a lot of discussion in the following days about the decision to cancel race, an issue that everyone seems to have an opinion on. For the record, I think stopping the race was the right decision. There were definitely some issues with how the cancellation was communicated to runners and how everything was handled. But even with the best laid plans, I don’t see a race cancellation ever going smoothly without issue.
Looking at the marathon’s Facebook page, there are many of commenters who agreed with the decision to call the race early. And of course there are those that don’t agree with the cancellation or how it was handled.
I’ve read a lot of the commentary of those that were upset with the decision trying to put myself in their shoes and consider how I’d react.
- If I crossed the finish line at 9:40am and I didn’t get an official time because the race was cancelled at 9:35, I’d be upset.
- If I’d been training for months putting in the hours and miles and this was going to be my first marathon, I’d be upset.
- If I was a smart, experienced runner who maintained a safe pace, stayed well hydrated, and could have finished without issue, I’d be upset.
But the more I thought about it, the more one question came back to me: Why do I run? Do I really run so I can say I ran a certain race on a certain day in a certain time? I am as fanatical about my runs and times as anyone. I have a record of every race I’ve ever run, and I’m driven to get faster and to add better times to that log. But at that the end of the day, is it all about the numbers? For me, no.
I run because I feel good doing it. I run for the adrenaline rush of the pre-race excitement while standing anxiously at the start line. I run for the beauty encountered logging training miles along the lakefront and through the trails of the forest preserve. I run because I enjoy the company of my fellow runners in the gym and out on the trails. I run because it’s challenging, and I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment I get from overcoming the challenge.
And at the end of the day, what’s a cancelled race? Another challenge. A bump in the road that disrupts the best laid plains, and forces me to regroup and try again. So yes, a cancelled race would upset me, and I’d stew over it for a bit. But then I’d lace up my shoes and go for a run.